‘Keep Lee County Beautiful’ organizes clean-up effort

FORT MYERS, Fla – Thousands of people walked the Southwest Florida coastline Saturday morning to volunteer their time and pick up trash.

The clean-up effort was organized through Keep Lee County Beautiful, a local group that plans events throughout the year.

Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, and Sanibel Beaches are a few of the locations where volunteers spent their morning.

Dozens of people also gathered in northwest Cape Coral to plant 10,000 mangrove trees.  They hope the plants will help ecosystem flourish.

“This is an estuary environment, so it’s considered the nursery of the sea,” said Jim Niehaus, a sponsor of the event. “It is one of the most productive ecosystems on earth so we’re furthering that with this particular effort to bring it a little more back to nature.”